Pretty Ugly

When’s the last time you bought an imperfect veggie? C’mon, you know you do it – pass over the slightly misshapen piece of produce in favor of its perfect cousin lying next to it. It’s hard to imagine that the ugly eggplant or apple could be nearly as delicious as the flawless counterpart.

And yet, why? It seems so obvious that the taste of something isn’t going to change because it grew sideways or looks like a mutated siamese twin. Nevertheless, farmers, markets, and customers pass over or throw away tons of fruit and vegetables because it is less than picture perfect. In a world of starving people, it’s a behavior that is truly an embarrassment of riches.

Anyone who grows their own food or even shops at the farmer’s markets knows the beauty in food comes in many packages. Watch what this French supermarket chain did to elevate the lowly ugly ones to desirable status and to show that beauty is in the eye, or mouth, of the beholder.